Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger to Live on Through 2012

A freshening will attempt to pump some life into the mid-size sedans until Fiat-based replacements arrive.

With the ink still drying on the Chrysler/Fiat alliance, Chrysler’s future product portfolio is about as stable as the stock market. Now those ever-changing plans include a previously unplanned refresh for the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger, according to Automotive News. The report says that under previous owner Cerberus Capital Management, Chrysler had no plans to update the sedans, and would instead let them die when the Sterling Heights, Michigan, factory that builds the cars closes at the end of 2010. Now, in order to tide the struggling automaker over until it can launch Fiat-based vehicles—which are at least two years out—the Sebring and Avenger are slated to stay on the market until late 2012.

The Sebring is expected to receive a heavy face lift for 2011, which we can only hope will also include revisions to the cost-cut interior. The reworked Avenger could surface before the Sebring, as its changes are reported to be less intensive than its sibling’s.

The news isn’t particularly shocking, and initial reports that Fiat-based vehicles would be plying our roads soon after the merger have proven terribly optimistic. With both the Sebring and Avenger sitting at the bottom of the high-volume, big-profit mid-size segment, we’re anxious to see what Chrysler can whip together in short order. In its current predicament, Chrysler can’t really afford to sit on the sidelines awaiting a Fiat-product-led rescue, but bankruptcy and laying off huge swaths of engineers and designers have left few new vehicles in its own pipeline. That puts it at a huge disadvantage against competitors that have continued development on future offerings.